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Phanteks PH-TC12DX Review

Phanteks PH-TC12DX Conclusion:

Phanteks has another winning cooling solution in the 120mm fan equipped PH-TC12DX. At $59, it is not the most expensive tower-style cooling solution on the market, but does not fall close to the bottom-end of the price structure either. For that price, you do get a cooler that does the job it is designed to do - cool your CPU when running stock or overclocked speeds on your processor. At $59 it is less expensive than both the Sapphire Vapor-X Universal CPU cooler and the Noctua NH-U12P SE2 it is compared against, adding some value to the cost. Phanteks includes mounting hardware packages for Intel and AMD's latest sockets, comes with Phanteks' own PH-NDC nano-particle based thermal paste and comes in a four different colors (Red, White, Blue, Black), to match the theme of your build.

Installation of the PH-TC12DX is a snap based on the construction of the SoliSku universal mounting kit. It does require installation before the motherboard is mounted in the chassis, if your chassis of choice does not have access to the back of the CPU socket. On my test system, I found that the front fan has interference issues when all of the DRAM slots are populated on my socket 1155 test system. A problem not unique to Phanteks, but a problem in general with the socket placement on many socket 1155 based systems, when using DRAM modules with large heat spreaders. If you only populate two of the four DIMM slots, or use low profile DRAM modules, such as this kit from Samsung, you can fill all of the DIMM slots, without worries. The SoliSku mounting system resembles Noctua's SecuFirm2 system, for both the Intel and AMD mounts.

When you look at the cooling performance delivered by Phanteks' cooling solutions, it's not hard to see how it achieves its cooling goals. Using P.A.T.S.(Physical Antioxidant Thermal Shield) technology to keep radiant heat from impacting cooling performance and C.P.S.C (Cold Plasma Spraying Coating Technology), to improve the thermal transfer between the copper heat pipes, the base and fin array, it has found a way to make a better cooler. When you start pushing more air, cooling solutions tend to get louder. Phanteks uses UFB (Updraft Floating Balance) bearings and MAFO (Maelstrom Air-Fort Optimization) on its PH-F120HP PWM fans, to push almost 70 C.F.M. of air, at less than 28dBA. Add in the rubber isolation points on the fan and cooler, and you have a cooler that is quiet enough that it cant be heard outside the chassis while gaming. Phanteks has put together a package that works, is not loud, looks good and will keep your processor cool.